Intelligence level evaluation and influencing factors analysis of equipment manufacturing industry in the Yangtze River Delta.

The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) bears the vital task of driving the growth of China's equipment manufacturing industry (EMI) intelligence as an advanced region. Fostering the transformation and upgrading of the EMI in the YRD and constructing a modern production mode is vital to developing and reforming China's manufacturing industry. This paper uses industrial robot data to assess the level of intelligence (LoI) in the EMI from 2016 to 2019. The OLS (ordinary least squares) model is used for the measurements, and the MQ (the modified contribution index) is used to estimate the degree of contribution from a host of variables. It is identified that the LoI is on the rise. However, excluding railways, aerospace, shipbuilding, and other transportation equipment manufacturing, the LoI is significantly higher than in other subsectors. It is also identified that technological innovation ability, human capital density, and enterprise cost pressure govern the industry's LoI. Moreover, while there is a difference in the main influencing factors in LoI within different industries, R&D investment, technological innovation ability, and enterprise cost pressure have the most significant impact across most equipment manufacturing sub-industries.

Policy interplay among social health insurance system, pension system, delayed retirement initiative and implications for the self-rated health status of older workers.

Delayed retirement initiative proposed in China attaches greater importance to the sustainability of pension systems and the labour shortage, but less to the health status of older people. The existing social health insurance and pension system are not well established to match this initiative. This study investigates the policy mix of delayed retirement, employment-based social health insurance, social pension participation for health status of older people. Results of the data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS-2018) show that late retirement could benefit health status among older adults. Moreover, such effect of late retirement appears more salient for those uninsured by employment-based social health insurance and those still in the pension contribution phase upon reaching the statutory retirement age. Hence, in countries with inadequate health insurance and pension systems, such as China, delayed retirement may serve as an important alternative to social security for the health of older people.

The impacts of economic policy uncertainty on firm cash holding in China.

Cash holding is an important strategic decision of enterprises. As a macro-level factor, economic policy uncertainty causes risks, affecting enterprises' cash holdings. Taking the quarterly financial data of China's A-share non-financial listed firms for 2010-2020 as a sample, this study adopts the OLS and fixed effect models to investigate how corporate cash holdings are affected by economic policy uncertainty. The findings indicate that economic policy uncertainty is directly proportional to the level of cash that listed corporations hold. The higher the uncertainty, the more cash the company holds. Among them, state-owned enterprises and the manufacturing industry are more significantly affected by economic policy uncertainty. Finally, considering the regional marketization level and the differences in financing constraints enterprises face, it is concluded through grouping empirical studies that enterprises located in regions with lower marketization levels are more susceptible to policy uncertainty, while financially constrained enterprises are more susceptible to economic policy uncertainty. The study of economic policy uncertainty is helpful to guide enterprises to realize the importance of coping strategies in advance under the background of intensifying economic policy uncertainty. Therefore, this paper proposes to introduce policies on the premise of fully considering the smoothness of the economy and the differences in the conditions of firms of different natures, as well as some proposals to alleviate financing constraints, reduce the adverse effects of uncertainty on firms, and bolster the marketization process.

Can inequity be transmitted? Big data show the influence of physical activity inequity on socioeconomic inequity.

The cumulative health effect resulting from the disparity in physical activity engagement could be transformed into out-of-pocket health expenditure in future, which would widen the socioeconomic gap on all portions of the income spectrum. Recent study reveals the association between physical activity inequity and social inequity. However, the difficulty in accurately measuring the physical activity could deter further exploration of this issue. This correspondence use smartphone-derived big data to provide a more fine-grained depiction, which suggest that the inequity in physical activity can contribute to the social inequity several years later.

Travel experience and health service amongst older people from the perspective of social exclusion: Policy implications of alleviating transport deprivation.

The vulnerable population are often faced with the transport deprivation resulting in social exclusion (e.g. lack of access to healthcare service or suffering from lower health service quality). The disparity in travel experience can lead to different results of healthcare service seeking amongst the vulnerable population such as older adults with and without disabilities. This study applies Heckman's two-stage procedure and the data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Based on having controlled the influence of individual financial situation and self-rated health, results show that longer travel time is observed in older adults who have paid the visit to the higher class healthcare facilities (HHCF). Besides, the visit to HHCF is negatively associated with disability and positively with travel mode with less discomfort. Further, the relationship between disability and the class of visited healthcare facilities is found to be conditioned on the travel time and travel mode, wherein such relationship could be intensified by longer travel time and be alleviated by travel mode with less discomfort. Therefore, social policies to alleviate transport deprivation are critical for accessing better healthcare services amongst older people with disabilities.

Family support and transport cost: understanding health service among older people from the perspective of social-ecological model.

BACKGROUND: This study is to investigate the interaction of family support, transport cost (ex-post), and disabilities on health service seeking behavior among older people from the perspective of social ecological model. METHOD: We conduct a series of regressions including the Poisson model and Multiple logit model. The Heckman two-stage procedure is also conducted to check the robustness. RESULTS: Given that health care resources are generally concentrated in densely populated urban areas, access to services of higher-class health care facilities is found associated with higher transport cost (ex-post). Family support could also promote the access to higher-class health care facilities. Although disability may impede such access, this effect may be mitigated by paying higher transport cost (ex-post). CONCLUSIONS: Alleviating transport deprivation and promoting family support are critical for access to better healthcare services among older people with disabilities.

Late-Life Working Participation and Mental Health Risk of Retirement-Aged Workers: How Much Impact Will There Be From Social Security System?

PURPOSE: Increasing retirement-aged workers are encouraged to stay in the labor market, as delayed retirement initiative is proposed. This study investigates the interplay of late-life working participation and social security on the mental health risk of retirement-aged workers. METHOD: We applied data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS-2018), and the instrumental variables regression was conducted. RESULTS: Late-life working could alleviate depression, as did the beneficiary status of employment-based social health insurance and the pensionable phase of social pension participation. Besides, the role of late-life working in alleviating depression became more salient when late retirees were not insured by the employment-based social health insurance and still in the pension contribution phase. CONCLUSIONS: It is suggested that the current social security system in China has not been sufficiently well designed to protect the mental health of retirement-aged workers.

Late career participation of late retirees in the age of the silver tsunami: understanding the influencing mechanism of health status and employment-based health insurance participation.

BACKGROUND: The delayed retirement initiative and population aging have led to a growing group of late retirees. However, it remains unclear whether the existing employment-based health insurance system can effectively match the recently proposed initiative and support late retirees, especially those with pre-existing function limitations. Thus, this study aims to investigate the influencing mechanism of China's Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI), physical functioning limitation (PFL) and difficulty in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) on labour participation of late retirees in China. METHODS: This study uses data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) survey, which tracks the quality of life among older adults in China (valid sample size = 5560). RESULTS: Empirical results show that China's employment-based health insurance (i.e. UEBMI) and health conditions (i.e. PFL and difficulty in IADLs) are positively associated with late retirees' withdrawal from late career participation. In addition, a higher level of difficulty in IADLs could strengthen the effect of PFL on late retirees' withdrawal from late career participation, which could be further buffered by UEBMI beneficiary status. CONCLUSION: In the formulation of delayed retirement policies, it is necessary to consider the influencing mechanism of the social health insurance system and health conditions on late career participation of older workers to ensure policy effectiveness.

Health Insurances and the Health-Related Work Capacity of Retirement-Aged Workers: A Comparative Investigation.

OBJECTIVE: This study is to investigate the health-related work capacity of retirement-aged workers under the beneficiary status of different health insurance schemes in China. METHOD: Using the data from CHARLS program, we investigate the health-related work capacity of retirement-aged workers in China (more than 60/55 years-old for men/women respectively). Multivariate regressions and robustness checks (Heckman two-stage procedures, chronological design, etc) are conducted. RESULTS: (1) Late-life career participation could reduce the risk of declining work capacity due to health problems; (2) different social health insurances affect health-related work capacity among retirement-aged workers differently; (3) social health insurances influence the role of late-life career participation in reducing the risk of health-related work capacity, with different schemes displaying different effects (mitigate or strengthen). CONCLUSIONS: Systematic inequity in benefit across health insurances may result in contrasting health outcomes of retirement-aged workers.

Population distribution by ethnicities and the disparities in health risk and coping in the United States during the pandemic: the spatial and time dynamics.

BACKGROUND: As a multi-ethnic country, the US is increasingly concerned about ethnic minorities facing disproportionate health risks of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study attempted to provide a macro picture of the associations between population distribution by ethnicity and the vulnerability to COVID-19 in terms of infection risk and vaccination coverage in the US. METHODS: This study used multi-source data from New York Times, County Health Rankings & Roadmap Program (2020), and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Multiple linear regressions were performed at equidistant time points (May 2020-Jan 2021, with one-month interval between each time point) to reveal the association between population distribution by ethnicities and the infection risk and the dynamics over time. Besides, multiple linear regressions were also conducted at equidistant time points (Jan 2021-Aug 2021) to reveal whether health disparities between ethnicities would hold true for the COVID-19 vaccination coverage (in total population, and among those > 12, > 18, and > 65 years of age). RESULTS: Both the COVID-19 confirmed cases (population standardized) and the vaccination coverage (in total population, and among those > 12, > 18, and > 65 years of age) were significantly associated with the population distribution by ethnicity (e.g., population percentage of ethnic minorities). Above associations were statistically significant for non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics, but not for Asian Americans. CONCLUSIONS: A proportion of socioeconomically-disadvantageous population could be a key intuitive reflection of the risk level of this public health crisis. The policy focusing on the vulnerable population is important in this pandemic.

Socioeconomic disadvantages and vulnerability to the pandemic among children and youth: A macro-level investigation of American counties.

This study intends to reveal the underlying structural inequity in vulnerability to infection of the novel coronavirus disease pandemic among children and youth. Using multi-source data from New York Times novel coronavirus disease tracking project and County Health Rankings & Roadmap Program, this study shows that children and youth in socioeconomically disadvantaged status are faced with disproportionate risk of infection in this pandemic. On the county level, socioeconomic disadvantages (i.e., single parent family, low birthweight, severe housing problems) contribute to the confirmed cases and death cases of the novel coronavirus disease. Policymakers should pay more attention to this vulnerable group to implement more targeted and effective epidemic prevention and control.

The dilemma of dual adaptation to delayed retirement initiative and work model change of gig economy: the influence of late retirement and multiple-job holding on mental health among older workers.

PURPOSE: A growing number of older workers engage in multiple jobs in the context of delayed retirement initiative and the fast-growing gig economy in China. However, it remains unclear whether multiple jobs holding is beneficial to late retirees. METHODS: To preliminarily address this issue, this study applies the data of CHARLS-2015 to examine the effect of late retirement and multiple-job holding on mental health among older adults. Besides, instrumental variables (IVs) regression is conducted to clarify potential endogeneity problem. RESULTS: It is shown that both late retirement (coef. = - 2.726, p < 0.01) and multiple-job holding (coef. = - 1.523, p < 0.01) alleviate depression among older adults. However, multiple-job holding would weaken the relationship between late retirement and depression (coef. = 2.019, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that although the modest engagement in late careers and multiple-job holding could benefit mental health, respectively, the overlap of them could be overburdened for older adults. Policymakers should be aware of the occupational risk of multiple-job holding when incentivizing the delayed retirement to address the population aging.

Understanding the health outcomes of the work pattern transformation in the age of gig economy: an investigation of the association between multiple-job holding and health status in the United States and China.

OBJECTIVE: The Slash (multiple-job holders) become increasingly prevalent in the labor force under the context of fast-developing gig economy and other emerging employment forms active on platforms. However, health outcomes of multiple-job holding have not received sufficient research treatment and is far from reaching consensus. This study provides an empirical investigation on the influence of multiple-job holding on individual health. METHOD: This study uses data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS-2015 survey) which covers 28 provinces/municipalities in China and tracks work and health status of the population aged over 45 years using stratified random sampling (N = 12,659-16,526 for examinations of different types of health status (i.e., chronic conditions/body aches/depression, in study 1), and from the Survey of Household Economics and Decision-making (SHED-2019) which is conducted by the Federal Reserve Board of the United States and documents economic behavior and related risks of the population aged over 18 years (N = 6603 for baseline model and N = 10,718 for supplementary test, in study 2). To address the potential endogeneity of multiple-job holding, the instrumental variable (IV) regressions are conducted to ensure the validity of results. The implementation of Study 1 and 2 in different national context could help test the generalization of research results. RESULTS: Compared with non-multiple jobs holding, multiple-job holding with only one additional job is associated with better health status (i.e., less chronic conditions and body aches, a lower level of depression shown in study 1, and better self-assessed general health shown in study 2), however, multiple-job holding with at least two additional jobs turns to be associated with worse health status (shown in both study 1 and 2). These results show that the optimal level of multiple-job holding could be featured with one additional job besides the primary job. CONCLUSION: Multiple-job holding, with different structures, has both bright and dark side for health outcomes. To maintain an optimal level of multiple-job holding could benefit individual health.

The interaction of delayed retirement initiative and the multilevel social health insurance system on physical health of older people in China.

With many social challenges posed by an ageing population, the delayed retirement initiative has received wide attention from policymakers. However, China's current multi-level social health insurance system seems not perfect and not ready for the delayed retirement initiative. The public are generally concerned that the benefits of late retirees cannot be well guaranteed. Using data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) and the chorological design (CHARLS-2015 and -2018 waves), this study finds that (1) late retirement could be beneficial for physical health among older adults; (2) there have disparities between the effects of different social health insurances on physical health among older adults; (3) social health insurances could weaken the benefits of late retirement to physical health among older adults. Results imply that China's current multi-level social medical insurance system may lag behind the proposed delayed retirement initiative and have policy limitations for late retirees.

Labor Participation of Retirement-Aged Workers: Understanding the Influencing Mechanism of Health Status and Social Pension Insurance Participation.

BACKGROUND: Delayed retirement initiative is taken as one of the proposed solutions to population aging. Rare research attention has been paid to determinants in decisions-making of late retirement. METHOD: This study applies data from CHARLS survey (2018) that traces the health status among older adults in China, and implements the stepwise multiple regression analysis adjusted with robust standard errors on individual level. RESULTS: The difficulty in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) and chronic conditions could increase the intention of retirement-aged workers to withdraw from late career participation; and the overlay of both would interact to reinforce such intention. Besides, the employment-related social pension participation could further strengthen the jointly contributing effect of both on withdrawal from late career participation. CONCLUSION: The triple interaction mechanism in retirement-aged workers' decisions of late retirement needs considering in the policy formulation of delayed retirement initiative.

Bioinspired Multifunctional Photonic-Electronic Smart Skin for Ultrasensitive Health Monitoring, for Visual and Self-Powered Sensing.

Smart skin is highly desired to be ultrasensitive and self-powered as the medium of artificial intelligence. Here, an ultrasensitive self-powered mechanoluminescence smart skin (SPMSS) inspired by the luminescence mechanism of cephalopod skin and the ultrasensitive response of spider-slit-organ is developed. Benefitting from the unique strain-dependent microcrack structure design based on Ti3 C2 Tx (MXene)/carbon nanotube synergistic interaction, SPMSS possesses excellent strain sensing performances including ultralow detection limit (0.001% strain), ultrahigh sensitivity (gauge factor, GF = 3.92 × 107 ), ultrafast response time (5 ms), and superior durability and stability (>45 000 cycles). Synchronously, SPMSS exhibits tunable and highly sensitive mechanoluminescence (ML) features under stretching. A relationship between ML features, strain sensing performances, and the deformation has been established successfully. Importantly, the SPMSS demonstrates excellent properties as triboelectric nanogenerator (4 × 4 cm2 ), including ultrahigh triboelectric output (open-circuit voltage VOC  = 540 V, short-circuit current ISC  = 42 µA, short-circuit charge QSC  = 317 nC) and power density (7.42 W m-2 ), endowing the smart skin with reliable power source supply and self-powered sensing ability. This bioinspired smart skin exhibits multifunctional applications in health monitoring, visual sensing, and self-powered sensing, showing great potential in artificial intelligence.

The effectiveness of electronic health record promotion for healthcare providers in the United States since the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act: An empirical investigation.

The US Government has embarked on the largest initiative to date to encourage widespread use of electronic health records (EHRs). Up to now, it is not yet clear that what the actual effectiveness of EHR promotion is like since the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. As a response, this study analyzes the EHR conversion at the primary stage (sign-up EHR→go-live EHR) and the advanced stage (go-live EHR→meaningful use of EHR) for different types of healthcare providers in the United States. With the data from the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology-Regional Extension Centers Program, this study finds that healthcare providers have achieved progress in the EHR conversion at both the primary and advanced stage. However, the levels of progress made at different stages of EHR conversion vary for different providers. For rural and underserved healthcare settings, the progress made at the advanced stage is smaller than that at the primary stage, contrary to the case for other kinds of providers. Moreover, although the greater progress has been made at the advanced stage for some kinds of providers, the overall level of EHR conversion for various healthcare providers is far greater at the primary stage than at the advanced stage.

Erratum: Yuan, B., et al. Household Registration System, Migration, and Inequity in Healthcare Access. Healthcare 2019, 7, 61.

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The Development of Global Women's Rights and Improvements in Reproductive Health Intervention Access of Females with Different Socio-Economic Status.

Female's access to reproductive health intervention has experienced dramatic change with the development of women's rights across the world. However, the influence of the development of global women's rights on reproductive health intervention access differs by place of residence and by the socio-economic characteristics of educational attainment and income levels. As a response to it, this study investigates the influence of the development of global women's rights on contraceptive intervention access of females from different places of residence (rural/urban areas), with different educational attainment and income levels. Using multi-source data from World Health Organization (WHO), Inter-Parliament Union (IPU), International Labor Organization (ILO), and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), empirical results show that the development of women's rights generally improves female's contraceptive intervention access around the world, and especially benefits females in rural areas, with a lower educational level, and in the medium or low-income stratum. The development of global women's rights thus contributes to the social equity of healthcare access for females.